(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting structure of a rear suspension cross member of a vehicle.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Typically, one rear floor side member is attached to each side a rear floor panel of a vehicle body. In order to improve strength of the vehicle body and to enable mounting of a rear suspension, a rear suspension cross member is attached to the left and right rear floor side members.
For several vehicle models, both two wheel drive (2WD) and four wheel drive (4WD) versions are manufactured. In this case, different types of rear suspension cross members should be applied to the same vehicle body type depending on the type of drive train.
For a 4WD vehicle, two rear suspension cross members are employed with wide spacing therebetween. A pipe nut is applied to a rear floor panel of the rear suspension side member. Each 4WD rear suspension cross member is attached to the rear floor side member by a bolt that penetrates the cross member from its bottom and is engaged with the pipe nut.
For a 2WD vehicle, a single rear suspension cross member is employed. In this case also, a pipe nut is applied to the rear floor panel of the rear suspension side member. The 2WD rear suspension cross member is attached to the rear floor side member by two bolts that penetrate the cross member from its bottom and are engaged with the pipe nut.
In order to manufacture both 2WD and 4WD vehicles with a single vehicle body structure (i.e. to utilize the same rear suspension side member for either case), four bolt holes are provided on the rear suspension side member.
The cross-sectional shape of the rear suspension side member varies along its length. Therefore, the pipe nut is produced in as many as four different shapes so as to correspond to the four different positions of the bolt holes.
This means that an excessive number of parts are employed in order to manufacture both 2WD and 4WD vehicles with the same vehicle body structure.
Therefore, if a rear suspension cross member mounting structure can be improved such that the number of parts may be reduced while the manufacturing of both the 2WD and 4WD vehicles becomes easier, simplification of the assembly process and reduction of manufacturing cost can be achieved. Also, this may reduce human errors in the assembly process, e.g., assembling a 4WD part to a 2WD vehicle.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.